Following a successful 2023, British online bank Zopa Bank achieved full-year profitability for the first ever time since its launch in 2020.
Despite a difficult economic environment, characterised by high inflation, the milestone makes Zopa one of the fastest digital banks in the UK to turn an annual profit.
Zopa Bank revealed it achieved a pre-tax profit of £15.8million for the financial year ending 31 December 2023, up from a pre-tax loss of £26million for the year ending 31 December 2022.
It also saw its customer base surpass one million in the period across its newly expanded product offering; while it maintained an impressive net promoter score of 72 – a market research metric that measures the loyalty of customers by asking them the likelihood they would recommend a product, service or company to others.
Zopa explained that it plans to add more features and capabilities to its existing product line in 2024, and will remain focused on efficiency with the launch of a range of new artificial intelligence tools.
In a release, Steve Hulme, chief financial officer at Zopa, explained: “We launched Zopa Bank in 2020 to fight complexity and unfairness in financial services. We’re passionate about fundamentally changing the relationship between people and their money for the better.
“Our ambition is that every Zopa Bank product provides not only good value but also an overall experience that is welcoming, intuitive and reassuring. To make this happen, Zopa Bank leverages proprietary technologies, innovative product development and a customer-first mindset to create better financial solutions.”
Backing its customers
Zopa also shared a range of stats highlighting its successes; including the fact that it managed to lend to a greater number of people while simultaneously reducing the rate of customers falling behind on payments.
2023 also saw the bank launch its next-generation credit models that delivered 15 per cent lower risk and enabled it to expand our lending growth by 14 per cent.
Meanwhile, Zopa reached a grand total of £3.4billion in deposits across all of its savings products, supported by 81,500 new customers who chose to save their money with the digital bank. One key driving factor may have been the bank’s new ‘Smart ISA’, enabling customers to benefit from the associated tax-free allowance.
Within the announcement, Zopa also shared that it emerged as Newsweek’s second most loved workplace in the UK in 2023, and won the Employee Experience Award from Personnel Today. This reflects the investments we’ve been making in our people, including a more comprehensive benefits offering and the continuation of our cost-of-living support for eligible employees.
Finally, it launched the 2025 Fintech Pledge with ClearScore to drive 25 million positive financial actions for its customers by 2025. By the end of 2023, the pledge had already attracted 50 members and achieved 10 million actions.
